WeaponizedChess: chess + weapons = WeaponizedChess

WeaponizedChess is a game created by modifying regular chess. Arguably the most important modification is to add weapons (along with other types of objects that your pieces can pick up and use).

chess + weapons = WeaponizedChess

WeaponizedChess is also an attempt to modernize chess. Regular chess is about pawns contending with horsemen (knights) in an effort to destroy castles and capture the enemy king. Modern conflict is not like THAT at all.

WeaponizedChess pawns are more maneuverable and powerful. Horsemen (knights) are replaced by choppers (air cavalry) which truly fly through 3D space. Submarines use the subterranean level to attack and cannot normally be seen.

WeaponizedChess is three-dimensional but use of the 2 new dimensions (air and sub) are limited by the game design and in a standard game. This type of three-dimensionality is often referred to as "2.5D". Some weapons are specifically designed to destroy pieces using the air and sub level. SAM launchers fire SAMs which home in on and destroy air pieces and torpedo launchers fire torpedoes which seek out and destroy pieces in the sub level. It can be hazardous to your health to fly!

Modern conflict is heavily dependent on military technology. In WeaponizedChess there are choppers, jets, tanks, submarines, destroyers, and combat engineers whose movements and characteristics have been translated to a chess-like board. Low-observable assets play a deadly game of cat and mouse with the opponent. Infantrymen use jump-packs to fly over the battlefield. Combat scuba invisibly travels under the surface to attack.

Human beings are usually more able to accomplish their task when they are able to use a physical object or tool to help them. Similarly, a soldier is more effective when armed. Each combatant piece in a WeaponizedChess game has many more potential courses of action than a piece on a regular chess board. Comparatively, the soldiers in a regular chess game are eternally disarmed.

Projectile weapons, area-of-effect weapons, non-lethal stunning weapons, and conversion weapons are used against the enemy. Lese-majeste has been replaced with decapitation strikes. Ambushes can occur and reinforcements can arrive. Fratricide is always a possibility. Logistics is critical. All of these concepts inherent to modern war have been translated into a type of chess.

Sometimes pieces in WeaponizedChess cannot be seen by the opposing side. This limited visibility of pieces (stealth) is tunable. That is, if you hate stealth you can turn it OFF and everything will always be visible. Alternatively, you can turn the stealth-tuning 'dial' and stealth/low-visibility becomes more or less applicable. In modern warfare it is critical to not be seen because anything that can be seen can be destroyed. WeaponizedChess attempts to mimic this nature.

WeaponizedChess uses a 10x10 board, not a 8x8 board. 8x8 is too small, let's make it a little bigger. The WeaponizedChess board rotates the regular chess board by 90 degrees (the color of the square in the lower right is black, not white). Black moves first. White got to move 1st in regular chess all this time, let Black move 1st now.

WeaponizedChess is an attempt to provide a game for people who used to play chess in the past but got bored with it. Whenever regular chess does things one way, WeaponizedChess tries to do things the other way (if there's a clear, definite alternative choice). Did you ever look at your present position during a regular chess game and wish you could move TWO pieces instead of just one? In WeaponizedChess there is often a way to move more than 1 of your pieces during your turn. Rarely, you are even able to move one of your opponent's pieces!

WeaponizedChess is also an experiment in creating a game where a human player will always have an advantage over any conceivable artificial-intelligence player. This is achieved by deliberately and radically increasing the exponential burden of a computer player but in a way that any human can naturally handle. Humans will always be better guessers than computers and stealth (and other features of the game) ensheathe this nature into the game. You don't like playing chess by mail or email remotely with someone because you fear they may cheat (get advice from a chess-playing computer program)? Play this game instead. Tired of playing chess against people who have spent a lot of time building up book knowledge about chess? Play this game instead.

WeaponiizedChess only runs under Linux now. At this very moment, it looks like it will only be available initially for 64 bit processors.

A recent test run displayed Bengali, Telugu, and Kannada properly although recently those three languages had experienced a period during test of displaying improperly (after 1st displaying properly for a long period). They're back! If not then presumably these languages should display properly if the proper fonts are loaded.

Translations of the game documentation into Herbrew, Aramaic, Urdu, and Farsi are provided within the installed game directory but those languages do not display properly in the game. If you are willing and able to read a word backwards in these languages then you will be able to play the game in these languages. The solution to this problem should occur at the system level, hence I'm not going to try to correct this problem myself (it's their responsibility, not mine). The translations in these languages look correct re right-to-left as viewed within emacs. It is doubtful that loading proper fonts will correct this issue. Restating for clarity: The documentation in these languages is displayed correctly in the game but the commands you click to control the game are in reverse (each command is 1 to 3 words long so it is not impossible to read them backwards. inconvenient but possible.).

WeaponizedChess has a fully developed board editor, game notation, and undo ability. Curious about what would have happened if you had done something different? In non-competitive mode, you can selectively take back movements and actions. WeaponizedChess has an extensive ability to modify game play to match user preferences. A user can save those preferences so that whenever the game starts those preferences decide how the game is to be played. There are numerous videos about the game that you can watch on YouTube. Just search for "WeaponizedChess" or "Weaponized Chess" and you will see them there.

Below are clickable links that take you to those videos.

The first video shows you what it looks like to play a simple game.

Click on the link below and you will be taken to YouTube where you can watch the video

The third video is a somewhat longer demonstration of what you actually do when you play a game. Note that on YouTube there is a more detailed description of the video that you can read about each video.

The fourth and fifth videos (Part 1 and Part 2) describe the game in more detail. No time is devoted during these videos describing how WeaponizedChess is more like modern warfare than regular chess (two of the later videos DO talk about that).

The sixth and seventh videos talk more about the various ways the user can control the program. Here is where the board editor and all the various options you can use to control the game are shown to you.

The tenth video describes the various scenarios (pre-built starting game boards) that are available when you play the game. The use of the phrase "Deep Blue" is intended to be humorous and falls under fair use.